Wednesday, July 13, 2016

I have been
a priest’s wife for just under two days. Please pray for me. I have no idea
what the future has in store for us!!

Please pray for this new priest, priest's wife, and any children they have!

Bless this marriage and his priestly ordination and grant unto these Your servants a peaceful life, length of days, chastity, love for one
another in a bond of peace, offspring long‑lived, fair fame by reason of
their children, and a crown of glory that does not fade away.

Account them worthy to see their children's children. Keep
their wedlock safe against every hostile scheme; give them of the dew from the
Heavens above, and of the fatness of the earth. Fill their houses with
bountiful food, and with every good thing, that they may have to give to them
that are in need, bestowing also on them that are here assembled with us all
their supplications that are unto salvation.

For You are a God of mercy and of compassion, and to You do we send up Glory: as to Your eternal Father and
Your All‑Holy, Good, and Life‑creating Spirit, both now and
ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen

Flannery O'Connor, writer and Catholic of great renown, said that she couldn't be a saint, but she could be a martyr "if they killed her quick." G.K. Chesterton asserted that “the most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.” Saint Bernadette of Lourdes said that God had used her for an extraordinary purpose and then put her back in the corner like a broom.

Let's be faithful enough to be like 'Bob' in the (parody) troparion above. Let's be martyrs, witnesses to Christ even if we are ordinary. Let's be brooms.

It is too true that I who write about the devout life am not myself devout, but most certainly I am not without the wish to become so, and it is this wish which encourages me to teach you. A notable literary man has said that a good way to learn is to study, a better to listen, and the best to teach. And Saint Augustine, writing to the devout Flora, says, that giving is a claim to receive, and teaching a way to learn. -St. Francis de Sales